Asteroid Mining - Is it even possible?

Well, billionaires aren't most people. A growing number of entrepreneurs have crunched the numbers and arrived at a surprising conclusion: asteroid mining makes economic sense. For most people, Asteroid Mining sounds like Sci-Fi as teleportation.

Goldman Sachs in April of 2017, circulated a 98-page note for its clients mentioning space mining seems daunting but it actually makes a lot of sense. They came to that conclusion: thanks to the efforts of SpaceX and other private space ventures, the cost of space travel is plummeting. 

Earlier, it costed $35 million to send a single person to space, a CalTech report states an entire Asteroid capture and return mission would cost $2.6 billion now.

Peter Diamandis, co-founder of the asteroid-mining venture 'Planetary Resources' said, "a single 98-foot-long (30-meter) asteroid could contain $25–$50 billion worth of platinum. Compared with the cost of a mission to the asteroid, that's a return on investment by an order of magnitude".

Deep Space Industries, another company chomping at the bit to start space mining, it's a multi-step process. First, they'll send out tiny spacecraft to scout for good asteroid candidates. When they find one, they will send a specialised robotic spacecraft to start the mining process, then return the resources they harvest to a vessel in near-Earth orbit for processing.

One small problem with space mining: politics. The Outer Space Treaty of 1967, an international agreement that lays out the rules of space travel and exploration for planet Earth. It specifically states that "outer space is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means." 

Whether that applies to mining for raw materials is a matter of debate, but if we don't settle it soon, the first haul from an asteroid mine could become embroiled in a legal battle.

Source : curiosity.com